I am one of those people who no matter how hard they try they always put their foot in their mouth. Also god forbid i try to joke about something on drummer world people look at me like i just kicked their puppy, or ignore me, or accuse me of trolling or flaming.
Does anyone else have this problem? my first visit to drummerworld years ago i almost got banned for asking a "dumb" question and it feels like ive been barely clinging to my membership ever since.
Any other akward typers out there? Anyone with any suggestions on how i can rectify my situation or am i doomed to constantly be misunderstood and eventually banned?

Well I'm a blabbermouth. In real life and online. My friends often ask me very sarcastically if I have " any unexpressed thoughts at all ?"

I think the whole idea of drummerworld is for all of us to bond and share our musical lives with each other hopefully in a friendly and respectful way, but yes one sometimes sees other agendas on these boards as well.

That coupled with the 'lost in translation' bit often ends up with a lot of " I didnt mean....", " its all good...." kinda posts too. Its the nature of the beast.

One of the drawbacks is that you cant really get into a lot of satire or dark humor, because as a post it tends to appear just plain dark, and therefore misunderstood.

If I said " I wish you would drive off a cliff " with a friendly punch in the arm it would mean something totally different, would it

The key is proof reading, and with my typing skills, I do it every time.

i always proof read before i post, i just seems in some threads you have to dummy down comedy to the lowest common denominator for some people to the point of putting "lol" or "hahahaha" at the end of every line just so they wont misunderstand and get offended. In others you have to have a perfect grasp of grammar,syntax and a vocabulary that would make a shakspearian actor ashamed, and a multitude of drumming acheivments just to be taken seriously. I dunno maybe im just bitching here, but it really gets to me.
I usually dont comment on something unless im pretty sure that i can add something meaningful to it. but for the most part i only have about 350 posts in about 3 years cause im always wondering if something i say will be taken wrong and i end up looking like an idiot.

Smilies and lols and hahas and hehehes were invented specifically to make up for the fact that you can't see a person's face or hear their tone of voice on the web.

Nothing dumbed down about them, Joey. I think it's smarter to use them than to deal with brushfires caused by misunderstandings just because a person was too proud to lower themselves to using unsophisticated emoticons.

Yeah Joey, I can be a very blunt person and it comes as no suprise to my friends that I have an opinion. An ex-girlfriend of mine once refered to me as "cluelessly insensitive". Well, I was only a young lad of 44 at the time so I hope I've grown since then.

You and our friends here are right in their posts regarding written thoughts. Not only do we have the inability hear ones tone when we're joking or using sarcasm for purely harmless humor, no offense intended at all - but it's also very easy to read into someones post or email a tone that doesn't express the senders thoughts or feelings at all. I've experienced this in the workplace as well.

We just have to be careful about what we say in the printed word. Someone had a bad day and they may read something quite different than what had been intended.

Anonymous people on the net could be any shade of nutter. Even so, I've been amazed at the lack of trust sometimes. If I really was the way some people seem to have assumed at times I'd be a psychotic bunny boiling misanthrope with an IQ of 70.

Love the way this thread's pulling the crazies out of the closet with their mea culpas:

Joey has anxiety issues
Aydee can't shut up
Drumeatdrum is a smart alec
Bassdriver needs anger management
Sufc is a scary guy (you know, football fans and all that)
Derek has the delicacy of a brick
TT is paranoid for good reason (they really are out to get him)
and I'm a psychotic bunny boiling misanthrope with an IQ of greater than 70

;-) (note the winkie!)

A wink is an informal mode of communication usually signaling ... shared hidden knowledge or intent.

Anonymous people on the net could be any shade of nutter. Even so, I've been amazed at the lack of trust sometimes. If I really was the way some people seem to have assumed at times I'd be a psychotic bunny boiling misanthrope with an IQ of 70.

Love the way this thread's pulling the crazies out of the closet with their mea culpas:

I guess a little bit. I do think I got off on a wrong start on drummerworld, with some pointless questions and stupid threads. It's easier nowadays though. Drummerworld is a very friendly and constructive community, but I sometimes really do feel as if I have to go tip toe so as not to offend anyone.
I think the reason that there's generally fewer replies to bad drumming than to good drumming is that, by unwritten convention, we're not really allowed to say "that was bad drumming (with reasons provided)" to anyone. Closest most people can get is "pretty good, but you need to work on [...]". But if we were allowed to make any negative comments, we might end up the new Youtube where your drumming will be graded on a four-point scale: Owning, Pwning, being Ghey or Suk-ing. With lots of 14-year olds preferring to judge people who aren't travis barker or mike portnoy with the latter two.